Maria Finn Dominguez

Cuba in Mind: an Anthology Maria Finn Dominguez

Jacket Description/Flap: Since Columbus arrived in 1492 and called Cuba "the most beautiful country that human eyes have ever seen," few places on earth have evoked such passion. The thirty-one writers in Cuba in Mind offer ample proof of the fascinations that have lured generations of travelers. In this richly varied anthology of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, we hear from such famous visitors as Anthony Trollope, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and Graham Greene. Poets and journalists offer their responses, from Allen Ginsberg and Jayne Cortez to Alma Guillermoprieto and Robert Stone; and novelists weigh in with such fictional portrayals as Elmore Leonard's Cuba Libre and Pico Iyer's" Cuba and the Night." Cuban exiles, immigrants, and their offspring provide their unique perspective, from Cristina Garcia's essay "Simple Life" to excerpts from Oscar Hijuelos's novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and from Carlos Eire's memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana." Embracing salsa and santeria, politics and baseball, the island's sparkling beaches and the teeming Havana streets, Cuba in Mind captures the vibrancy, the contradictions, the heat and the humor of Cuba as shown by some of the best writers in the English language. Contributors: Thomas Barbour - Jose Barreiro - Ruth Behar - William Cullen Bryant - Jayne Cortez - Stephen Crane - Andrei Codrescu - Eleanor Early - Carlos Eire - Kimi Eisele - Cristina Garcia - Allen Ginsberg - Graham Greene - Alma Guillermoprieto - Elizabeth Hanly - Ernest Hemingway - Consuelo Hermer - Oscar Hijuelos - Langston Hughes - Pico Iyer - Elmore Leonard - Rosa Lowinger - Marjorie May - Tom Miller - Holly Morris - Ricardo Pau-Llosa - Robert Stone - Jim Shepard -Isadora Tattlin - Anthony Trollope - Walter D. WilcoxBiographical Note: While teaching in the English Department at Hunter College of the City University of New York, Maria Finn Dominguez designed and taught a writing course for CUNY students at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba. She works as a freelance writer and has written for, among many others, "The New York Times, Audubon Magazine," and the "Anchorage Daily News, " and she has been a commentator for Alaska Public Radio. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has published literary work in magazines such as "The Chicago Review, New Letters, "and "Exquisite Corpse." She has lived and worked in Alaska, Guatemala, and Spain, and traveled extensively throughout Latin America. She and her husband, Rafael Dominguez, met in Havana, Cuba. They now live in Brooklyn, New York. Table of Contents: Introduction""Travelers""Anthony Trollope""from "The West Indies and the Spanish Main "William Cullen Bryant"""Letter XLVIII" from "Letters of a Traveller "Walter D. Wilcox"""Among the Mahogany Forests of Cuba"9Eleanor Early""from "Ports of the Sun "Consuelo Hermer and Marjorie May""from "Havana Manana: A Guide to Cuba and the Cubans "Robert Stone"""Havana Then and Now"""Alma Guillermoprieto""from "Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America "Andrei Codrescu""from "Ay, Cuba! "Kimi Eisele"""The Flesh, the Bones, and the Beating Heart"1 Expatriates, Real and Imagined" "Elmore Leonard""from "Cuba Libre "Stephen Crane"""The Clan of No-Name"""Graham Greene""from "Our Man in Havana "Ernest Hemingway""from "The Great Blue River"""Jim Shepard"""Batting Against Castro"1Isadora Tattlin""from "Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana "Aficionados" "Langston Hughes"""Havana Nights"""Jayne Cortez"""Visita" and "In 1985 I Met Nicolas Guillen"""Allen Ginsberg""from an interview with Allen Young in "Gay Sunshine "Elizabeth Hanly"""Santeria: An Alternative Pulse"1Pico Iyer""from "Cuba and the Night "Tom Miller""from "Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro's Cuba "Holly Morris"""Adventure Divas"""Thomas Barbour""from "A Naturalist in Cuba "Exiles, Immigrants, and Their Offspring" "Oscar Hijuelos""from "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love "Ruth Behar"In the Absence of Love"""Cristina Garcia"""Simple Life"""Carlos Eire"""Trece" from "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy "Ricardo Pau-Llosa"""Charada China"""Rosa Lowinger"""Repairing Things"""Jose Barriero""from "The Indian Chronicles"Publisher Marketing: Since Columbus arrived in 1492 and called Cuba the most beautiful country that human eyes have ever seen, few places on earth have evoked such passion. The thirty-one writers in Cuba in Mind offer ample proof of the fascinations that have lured generations of travelers. In this richly varied anthology of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, we hear from such famous visitors as Anthony Trollope, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and Graham Greene. Poets and journalists offer their responses, from Allen Ginsberg and Jayne Cortez to Alma Guillermoprieto and Robert Stone; and novelists weigh in with such fictional portrayals as Elmore Leonard's Cuba Libre and Pico Iyer's Cuba and the Night. Cuban exiles, immigrants, and their offspring provide their unique perspective, from Cristina Garcia's essay Simple Life to excerpts from Oscar Hijuelos's novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and from Carlos Eire's memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana. Embracing salsa and santeria, politics and baseball, the island's sparkling beaches and the teeming Havana streets, Cuba in Mind captures the vibrancy, the contradictions, the heat and the humor of Cuba as shown by some of the best writers in the English language. Contributors: Thomas Barbour - Jose Barreiro - Ruth Behar - William Cullen Bryant - Jayne Cortez - Stephen Crane - Andrei Codrescu - Eleanor Early - Carlos Eire - Kimi Eisele - Cristina Garcia - Allen Ginsberg - Graham Greene - Alma Guillermoprieto - Elizabeth Hanly - Ernest Hemingway - Consuelo Hermer - Oscar Hijuelos - Langston Hughes - Pico Iyer - Elmore Leonard - Rosa Lowinger - Marjorie May - Tom Miller - Holly Morris - Ricardo Pau-Llosa - Robert Stone - Jim Shepard -Isadora Tattlin - Anthony Trollope - Walter D. Wilcox Review Citations:

Bookpage 07/01/2004 pg. 16 (EAN 9781400076130, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Dominguez, Maria Finn Maria Finn is the editor of the anthology "Cuba in Mind "(Vintage, 2004) and author of a memoir about falling in love and marrying her cab driver in Havana, Cuba. She has written for "Audubon, Saveur, Metropolis, The New York Times, "and the "Los Angeles Times," among many other publications. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has published literary work in magazines such as "Gastronomica, The Chicago Review, New Letters, "and "Exquisite Corpse. "She has lived and worked in Alaska, Guatemala, and Spain, and traveled extensively in Latin America.